Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

purpose

What do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

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When you are young, people often ask you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Our answers were always filled with the exuberant and innocent dreams of youth. My earliest recollection of answering that question was that I wanted to be Spiderman. That didn’t pan out and I still haven’t had any encounters with a radioactive spider, so like many passing fancies of youth, it’s probably time to let that dream go.

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But the question of “What do you want to be when you grow up” is a good one for all would-be disciples of Jesus. And it can only have one answer: “I want to be just like Jesus.” While my childhood dream of being Spiderman had no basis on reality, the aim of living like Jesus is both an attainable and worthwhile pursuit.

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The Church of Jesus

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While waiting for a church service to begin, I overheard a conversation happening in the rows behind me. There was a group of students from a nearby Christian college that was visiting the service I was attending. The person sitting next to them struck up a conversation inquiring about the group. One individual said they were all studying to be pastors, and as part of their coursework, they were visiting nearby churches every week to meet the congregants and take notes on what they liked and didn’t like.

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As the conversation continued, the pastor-in-training asked someone else nearby what had drawn them to the church when they began attending there. This engaged others around as well, and the responses were all similar: the messages, the preacher, and the atmosphere were the prevailing themes. What made me very sad was the one word I did not hear mentioned: Jesus.

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Wholly Devoted to Christ

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The primary goal of my life is to live it wholly devoted to Christ; to become the person He created me to be. My second goal is to instruct and encourage others to do the same. I’ve read and listened to countless exhortations to put God first in your life, or to live a Jesus-centered life. I’ve written those very words on this blog many times.

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What is often missing from these exhortations (and I stand guilty here as well) is an explanation of how to do this in practical terms. How do we center our lives on Jesus and live wholly devoted to Him when myriad distractions are assaulting us every day? How do we live for Heaven and still survive on earth?

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Die to Christ

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If we can’t die to Christ, we cannot live for Him. This is true in my life and yours.  And yet, as I look around, I see so few who are taking this to heart. I see and hear those who call themselves Christians spew venom on social media, pontificate on politics, and concern themselves with so much having nothing to do with the Kingdom. Believe me, I am not immune. I am not some super-Christian who has it all figured out and diligently picks up his cross every day without fail.

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This message applies to me as much, if not more than, it does to everyone else. We can’t continue to live the way we do and call ourselves followers of Jesus. We are living our lives for most of the same things the world does and deceiving ourselves by thinking God is looking the other way.

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Taking the Long View

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Joshua Bogunjoko is the International Director for SIM International, a missionary organization with a worldwide outreach. Given his position, he has a unique and informed perspective on what it means to follow Christ in hard times and circumstances. Mr. Bogunjoko writes, “Gaining God’s perspective amid adversity means taking the long view. Our experience of adversity today may be for the work of God in days, months, and years to come. It may be for someone’s encouragement a generation from now.”

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It often seems the work we do for Jesus doesn’t matter. No matter how much we pray, study, and serve, it’s difficult to see the needle moving. But God is always at work, weaving together every event on the human stage—now, in the past, and in the future—to bring about His sovereign will.

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